Should Plusnet suspend all advertising?

[#1]

Plusnet said the decimal part is due to the figure being an average over the time period, not an instantaneous value at the collection time.

[#2]

So the "Current calls waiting" should actually read "Average calls waiting". In which case, this figure is absolutely meaningless. It would be better to give the actual number of calls waiting at the 15 minute update or the maximum number of calls waiting over the previous period.

[#3]

Clearly the trend for dissatisfaction is growing. I guess the company has to keep advertising for new custom to balance the presumable increasing numbers leaving. Vicious circle.

[#4]

@spider
Yep, we've said that, it's a bit of a joke. No doubt the CEO thinks that the likely lower figure that is would be, will mean they will be less embarrassed by the long wait times, but is completely ignorant of the fact that people will not only post their moans all over the internet (not just this forum) but will contact Which and the likes. They need to be more transparent by simply stating - "sorry there are long wait times as a result of the volume of new customers signing up". If people want the good deals being offered and they are told there will be a wait, they are less likely to mind.

[#5]

@walakalulu
I don't think there is any significant volume of customers leaving, yes there are a few. Those that have a perfect line and go elsewhere will no doubt not encounter any issues. In the past there have been plenty who have left and come straight back at the first available opportunity. The customer service here is still generally better than the great majority of other ISPs, even with the waits, especially when you look at the price you pay.
Whilst there are occasions when CSC agents make mistakes, that is the same across the industry, you can't train everyone upto a standard of having a degree in DSL, accounting systems, the vagaries of BTw's & OR's ordering systems etc. When they come to light, problems are usually put right here. From the tales that people tell, that's clearly not the case elsewhere for a lot of people.

[#6]

On the "callers waiting" Issue.
Not knowing how the data is stored / extracted from the  Call Logger, it is difficult to be prescriptive about a solution.  I believe that you need something like the No. of 'calls Active' per minute over the measured period and then take the MODE and not the MEAN of the Dataset.?  Should be a fairly simple code change in PHP anyway
Maurice

[#7]

It used to tell us the exact number waiting before it got embarrassing and they started messing with it.

[#8]

I don't see why presenting an average is a problem. It gives a better impression of likely call answer queue delay.
For a while after the new phone system was installed the stats were missing; Plusnet said this was because the format differed from that of the previous system. When they returned averages were shown and the explanation above the tables reflects this.
As we all know the problem is the long wait to speak to an agent. If that was fixed I can't see anyone being concerned whether the calls waiting queue figure is presented as an instantaneous value or an average.

[#9]

It does give current calls waiting http://portal.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212

[#10]

No it doesn't Jim, you've missed the point. It currently (at time of posting) said 16.26  You cannot have 0.26 of a person waiting

[#11]

unless their call center is manned by a single person and they spending 40-50 mins per call I doubt its anywhere near 1 person waiting.

[#12]

at 1800  26.3 people waiting

[#13]

Quote from: spraxyt

I don't see why presenting an average is a problem.....

I have no problem with an an average time. However I would prefer to know how many calls are waiting. i.e. 10 callers for an average of 5 minutes means that I could be waiting 50 minutes to speak to some one on the phone. If however the average for the last 15 minutes was 5 callers, then it would lead me to believe that I might be only waiting 25 minutes to speak to some one.

[#14]

Maths please?

[#15]

the number of calls waiting is a 15 minute average I believe